


randomiser

by asarahworld



Series: Bigger on the Inside [22]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Donna Noble Remembers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:08:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28742265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asarahworld/pseuds/asarahworld
Summary: insp. by a Tumblr post
Series: Bigger on the Inside [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/398203
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	randomiser

**Author's Note:**

> insp. by a Tumblr post

“…randomiser?” The Doctor grinned, watching Clara’s hand hovering over the randomiser.

“Randomiser,” she agreed, hand poised. At the Doctor’s signal, she pulled the lever and whooped as the TARDIS took flight.

The Doctor gaped; his brows furrowed in confusion. “What?”

Clara looked up. “What?” She followed his gaze, eyes landing on the same point, and her brow furrowed in turn. “Do you get unannounced visitors in flight often?”

The Doctor was still staring.

A woman, nearing middle-age and with fiery red hair, was standing in the middle of the TARDIS.

“What?” He whispered.

“How the hell did I get here again?” She half-whispered, half-shouted.

“But,” the Doctor started.

“I was having dinner. Proper chips for the first time in months since the shop closed. Just got my order. And now I’m back here,” she continued.

Clara looked from the woman to the Doctor, and back again.

“Is this why you pilot the TARDIS randomly yourself?”

“Where’s the Doctor? I swear, just send me a bloody text and STOP! SNATCHING! ME! OFF! THE! STREET!”

The Doctor was trying to say her name. “Do- Do-, Donna?”

“You get that sulky skinny streak of nothing and tell him to communicate like a normal person. He can’t be gallivanting around time and space and not know what a bloody mobile is.” Donna looked at him and frowned. “Who are you and how do you know my name?”

Clara looked at the woman. “Hi. Clara Oswald. Sometimes known as the Impossible Girl. This is the Doctor. Only known as the Doctor. How’d you get on the TARDIS?”

The ginger woman strode forward. “Donna Noble. Best temp in Chiswick. I would assume it’s the same way he technically kidnapped me as the last time.” Her eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute. You’re telling me that that’s the Doctor?”

“I’m guessing it’s been a while since you’ve seen him, then.”

“Well, yeah. Last time he regenerated it was into a whole other version of himself. There were two of him! He grew out of a hand! It was seriously the strangest thing I’d ever seen.”

“Donna,” the Doctor finally spoke. “How do you know that?”  
“How are you the Doctor?”  
“I regenerated. Twice.”  
“Well, looks like you’ve run out of things to say. That was probably the most succinct I’ve ever heard you.”  
“Donna, how do you know who I am? You’re not supposed to remember!”  
“We’re going to talk about that later,” Donna frowned. “I begged you not to do that. Oh well, I remember everything now.”  
“How?” The Doctor pressed. “That knowledge should have burned your mind into nothing!”  
“Well,” Donna looked at him, noticing the strained concern in his eyes. “I stopped eating fish for a while and things started clearing up a bit. Thought it was a bit odd – they’re always telling you that fish helps the brain, but it worked.”  
“You… stopped eating fish,” the Doctor said faintly.  
“Yeah.” Donna shrugged. “So anyway, I stopped eating fish and I talked to Grandad – he’s still watching for the TARDIS in the sky, you know – and he said he saw the TARDIS over in Shoreditch. So I got a temp job as a secretary at the school there and I never saw you, but I guess I probably did and just didn’t recognize you. But then again, I was stuck in the office all day and if you were around, you were probably undercover with the psychic paper.”  
“What year is it?”  
“Eh? What do you mean, what year is it?”  
“Clara, tell Donna the date today.”  
“October twentieth, twenty-fourteen.”  
“I know the date, dumbo. Anyway, started looking for trouble again cos that’s how I found you again last time and here we are!”  
Clara interjected. “So, just to be clear, you know this woman from the last time she randomly appeared in the TARDIS and she’s not supposed to be able to remember you?”  
“That pretty much sums it up, yes,” the Doctor said, still focused on Donna. “You stopped eating fish and then remembered everything?”  
“Yeah.” Donna shrugged. “I could feel the ship in my head, like some sort of homing beacon. Got any way to turn that off? Although I suppose if we lose the TARDIS again, that might come in handy. Never really liked that part of the day when we couldn’t find the TARDIS.”  
“The TARDIS is in your head?”  
“Yeah, it was weird at first not knowing what it was but when I saw the TARDIS that day, I knew. She’d been trying to get my attention, I think. No fish, felt the TARDIS, found you. Isn’t this great?”  
“Yeah,” the Doctor agreed absently, taking his screwdriver from his breast pocket.  
“You are NOT bleeping me with that thing, thank you.”  
“No, I suppose not,” he agreed, replacing it. “It’s not as if the Racnoss are still around. The Huon particles have long since left your body. This is something else entirely.”  
“The human brain is very elastic. Maybe she just remembered on her own.” The Doctor and Donna turned to look at Clara. “I took a few psychology classes in uni before settling on English.”  
“Well, you always did go on about something ‘drawing us together’. Maybe whoever it was isn’t done with us yet. So, where are we off to? Or is the TARDIS still the principal driver?”


End file.
